Suppliers of resin, or intermediate articles made from resin, often promote the use of their materials by providing manufacturing equipment. For example, a film supplier may provide and end-user with equipment used to convert film to a pouch or other package. This equipment and related technology may be provided at no cost, or at a reduced royalty rate, for so long as the end-user purchases all of its raw materials (film in this example) from the supplier who provided the equipment. Additionally, for quality control reasons, the seller of a particular piece of manufacturing technology may specify a particular source of raw material. Currently, however, there is no reliable way to ensure that the end-user is using only raw materials obtained from the supplier that provided the fabrication equipment, or providing accurate information as to how much alternatively-sourced raw materials are being used, or ensuring that only approved raw materials have been used with the equipment.
Technology now exists to allow resin manufacturers to add minor amounts of a unique material, sometimes referred to as a tracer element, to a resin. The tracer element is chosen so that it does not interfere with the performance of the resin, but can be detected using routine analysis. Such technology includes the FINGERPRINT™ Resins available from The Dow Chemical Company. Such modified resins are currently used to enable the resin manufacturer to evaluate and improve quality and consistency of the resins when used in applications not in the resin manufacturer's control. Thus, for example, Dow can get performance data on its resins by obtaining samples of pipe in actual use, if that pipe contains the tracer element which is unique to Dow.
The present invention involves a new use for this existing tracer element technology. The present applicant has found that the tracer technology can also be used to ensure that raw materials used with a piece of fabrication equipment come from an approved source, or at least monitor and report the amounts of alternatively-sourced raw material. The method involves the step of including an on-line analyzer with the equipment. The on-line analyzer will be capable of detecting a tracer element which can be included in the raw material being supplied for use with the equipment. If the tracer element is not detected in the raw materials being used with the fabrication equipment, then the fabrication equipment can be programmed to shut down. Alternatively, the fabrication equipment can be programmed to record the amounts of material processed which did not include the tracer element. In this way an accurate record of how much alternatively-sourced material is being used can be obtained, and appropriate royalties can be collected.
This technology can conceivably be used in multiple steps of a process to make an article of commerce. A tracer element can be added to the resin itself as part of the polymerization reaction or shortly afterwards as part of the pellitization process. Film, fiber, sheets or finished articles made from that resin will then also contain the tracer element. Alternatively the tracer element may be able to be added at later stages such as in film or fiber production.